About remarketing lists for search ads

Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) is a feature that lets you customise your search ads campaign for people who have previously visited your site, and tailor your bids and ads to these visitors when they're searching on Google and search partner sites.

How it works

When people leave your site without buying anything, for example, remarketing lists for search ads helps you connect with these potential customers when they continue looking for what they need using Google Search. You can set your bids, create ads or select keywords keeping in mind that these customers have previously visited your website. Remarketing lists for search ads use remarketing lists for these customizations.

There are two basic strategies for using remarketing lists with search ads.

You can optimise bids for your existing keywords for visitors on your remarketing lists. For example, you can increase your bid by 25% for those who previously visited your website in the last 30 days. Or, you could show a different ad to site visitors who have placed items in a shopping basket but have not purchased them.

You can bid on keywords that you don't normally bid on just for people who have recently visited your site, or have converted on your site in the past. This can help you increase your sales. For example, you could bid on more broad keywords only for people who have previously purchased from your site.

Keep in mind.: The list membership limit for these lists is capped at 540 days. To learn more, read About remarketing lists.

How to set up your lists

To start using remarketing lists for search ads, you create a remarketing list and add a snippet of code that you get from AdWords, called a remarketing tag, to your site. You can add the new remarketing tag to every page in your site. The code tells AdWords to add every site visitor to your list. When people visit your homepage, for example, the cookies associated with their browsers are added to the remarketing list.

Once the remarketing tag is added to your site, you can add the remarketing list to your existing campaigns and ad groups, and raise and lower your bids for customers on the remarketing list.

Keep in mind: A remarketing list for Google search ads needs to have a minimum number of 1,000 cookies before the list can be used to tailor your search ads. This helps protect the privacy of those who make up your list.

Example

People looking for running shoes visit a sports clothing website to take a look at the available styles, and look at the shoe section of the site. The site could add these shoppers to a "Shoe category" list. Then, for example, the site could bid more for these visitors next time that they search for running shoes on Google.

How an advertiser used remarketing lists for search ads

Tirendo, a European online tyre retailer, saw a 161% conversion rate increase with remarketing lists for search ads, leading to a 22% overall sales increase. Read the case study (available in English only).